Pre-Conference Workshop

Restoring Purpose and Enhancing Wellness in Nursing

This workshop will provide leaders with the tools to enhance wellness in nursing. Restoring purpose, relieving burnout, and finding joy are possible. The neurophysiological and cognitive processes that lead to positive emotions, compassion and well-being are dynamic and modifiable. Opportunities for telling your story as a clinician and leader will be supported with gratitude and kindness. Participants will learn methods to create “psychological PPE” for individuals, organizations, students, and clinicians. Participants will discover and practice leadership approaches to positively impact academic culture and practice environments. Strategies for incorporating wellness into nursing curricula and clinical settings will be reviewed and evaluated.

Learner Objectives:

1. Review the neurophysiologic processes that lead to optimism, compassion, and wellbeing.
2. Use storytelling and life crafting strategies to define purpose and meaning in nursing.
3. Outline individual and external factors that impact wellness culture to inform effective leadership initiatives.
4. Highlight innovative wellness strategies to transform academic curricula and practice settings.
5. Reflect on actionable leadership steps to achieve well-being in learning and practice environments. 

Presenters:

Kate Gawlik, DNP, APRN-CNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN; The Ohio State University; Columbus, Ohio

Dr. Kate Gawlik is an Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing, Director of Undergraduate Health and Wellness Academic Programming, Director of the Bachelor of Science in Health and Wellness and Project Manager for the Million Hearts® initiative at The Ohio State University.  She is board certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner. She has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate nursing courses and serves as a clinical preceptor for advanced practice nursing students. Her clinical interests and expertise include population health cardiovascular prevention, parental burnout, health sciences education, and clinician and student wellness. She is the co-editor for four nursing textbooks, including Evidence-Based Physical Examination: Best Practices for Health & Wellbeing Assessment. She is a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Academy of Nursing. This work in cardiovascular prevention has received four national awards, including most recently, the 2022 AACN’s Innovation Award. Her most recent work in wellness involved developing a new scale, the very first instrument on the globe to measure working parent burnout. She lives in Columbus Ohio with her loving husband, Jason and four, somewhat mischievous, children.

Alice Teall, DNP, APRN-CNP, FAANP, FNAP; The Ohio State University; Columbus, Ohio

Alice M Teall serves as Senior Director of Wellness at Kenyon College, where she oversees the offices of Health Services, Counseling Services, and Health Promotion. With over four decades of experience as a nurse practitioner, educator, and leader, Dr. Teall is dedicated to leading innovative wellness initiatives and implementing strategies that enhance student health and well-being. Alice Teall has received leadership, teaching and practice awards, including the Ohio State University Provost’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Award for Innovations in Professional Nursing Education. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and the National Academies of Practice, and has demonstrated expertise in college health, primary care of at-risk youth and families, and recovery from substance use disorder. Dr. Teall has published and presented nationally about evidence-based advanced assessment, clinician well-being, telehealth competencies, and wellness academic programming.

Workshop Components:

The science of happiness

• Neurophysiological processes that lead to positive emotions
• Importance of wellness for individuals, organizations, students, and clinicians
• Effects of burnout including self-assessment
• Individual and organizational responsibilities
• Addressing cognitive distortions and the importance of story
• ACTION STEP: Re-telling your pandemic story (old story/new story)

Psychological PPE: Personal protective skills to promote well-being

• Storytelling
• Life crafting strategies
• Trauma-informed practices
• Overcoming fear
• Practicing gratitude
• Importance of finding joy and restoring purpose in nursing
• ACTION STEP: Think, pair, share: Reflection on “your why”

Academic Environments

• Teaching and learning strategies that impact student wellness Addressing resistance for leadership, students, and faculty
  
• Tools and Resources to create well classrooms and clinical environments
  
• Impact of leadership and teams
  
• Exemplars to guide implementation and innovation
  
• ACTION STEP: Group work to design wellness modalities for students

Practice Environments

• Impact of willingness to change
  
• Clinician wellness strategies
  
• Organizational culture and policies
  
• Belonging and Empowerment through Leadership
  
• Importance of Mentoring, Perspective and Partnership
  
• ACTION STEP: Group work to design wellness modalities for nurses